A movie version of Welcome Back, Kotter has been in the works for years.  Here’s the worst part – it is set to star Ice Cube.  This should alarm you.  Could there be a more defiant way for Hollywood to say, “We’re short on ideas”?  That’s a tough call.  I figure I might as well jump into this dazzling display of ZERO creativity and offer a few ideas of my own.

Listen up, Hollywood!  Here are five old sitcoms whose original concepts you can totally abandon and “spice up” to present to a new audience. Have fun.

5. Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper

Starring: Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey

Premise: Mark Cooper (Fallon) is a single high school teacher and tennis coach who once played professionally.  Between helping his tennis players deal with life’s struggles and living with two female roommates (Poehler and Fey) hijinks are guaranteed to ensue.

4. Growing Painz

Starring: Will Smith, Beyonce, Jaden Smith

Premise: Raising children is not fun, especially in the ghetto.  Will Smith stars as Jason Seaver – a father who agrees to work from home (selling faux jewelry) while his wife Maggie (Beyonce) goes back to work at her beauty salon after taking a few years off to raise their kids.

It doesn’t take long for Jason to realize just how hard a job parenting can be as he deals with the trials and tribulations of his three children: gang-banger Mike, precocious Ben, and brainiac Carol.

3. The Cosby Show

Starring: Steve Martin as Cliff Huxtable, Bonnie Hunt as Clair, Sean William Scott as Theo, Hilary Duff as Vanessa, Dakota Fanning as Rudy

Premise: Follows the hijinks and shenanigans of a successful, affluent Caucasian family.

2. Who Da Boss?

Starring: Mike Epps, Jennifer Aniston, Meg Ryan, Hailee Steinfeld, Rico Rodriguez (Manny from Modern Family)

Premise: Former NBA player Tony Micelli (Epps) and his inexplicably white daughter Samantha (Steinfeld) arrive at the house of executive Angela Bower (Aniston) where Tony has taken a job as a live-in housekeeper.

Tony and Samantha must learn to adapt to the unusual Bower family – uptight Angela, her hormonally awkward and inexplicably Hispanic son Jonathan (Rodriguez), and her man-crazed mother Mona (Ryan).  Interracial romantic tensions ensue.

1. Sanberg and Son

Starring: Billy Crystal, Adam Sandler, Barbra Streisand

Premise: Fred Sanberg (Crystal) is a cantankerous, bigoted Jewish man who runs a high-class and profitable junkyard with his son Lamont (Sandler) in an upscale part of town. Father and son often clash, but Fred’s blood really boils whenever Aunt Esther (Streisand) comes for a visit.

QUESTION

What about you?  Do you have any bad sitcom-to-movie ideas to add to the list?  Please feel free to do so in the comments section below.

Leave a Reply